When I was just a lad, Democrats owned this state. Aside from a few GOP bastions in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and western Oklahoma, Republicans were an afterthought.

That started to change in the 1990s. Republicans nearly swept the U.S. House races in 1994 and haven’t looked back since, chipping away at statewide offices (Brad Henry’s two terms as governor resisted the trend), the U.S. Senate, and ultimately, the Legislature.

Once securing majorities in both chambers in 2008, it’s been a total reversal of fortunes for the two parties. With the exception of a hiccup in the 5th Congressional District in 2018 (Democrat Kendra Horn pulled a surprise win there, only to lose that seat two years later), Republicans have been winning so much that they might be getting bored of it.

Every GOP priority — on abortion, taxes, guns, and more — has gained passage without much of a fight. Only once since 1992 has there been an uprising loud enough to counter this narrative, when a teacher walkout forced Republicans to enact tax increases to fund pay raises in 2018.

Other than that, it’s been smooth sailing. And yet, all is not well among Okie Republicans. A simmering fissure between Gov. Kevin Stitt and a wide spectrum of fellow Republicans erupted during the last week of the 2022 legislative session.

Words were exchanged, and punches were not pulled.

Lawmakers were getting ready to adjourn for the year, having undergone the hurried process of finishing the state budget. Those budget bills went to the governor’s desk, with hopes that he’d put a bow on it with his signature.

Stitt called a press conference on May 26, one day before the Legislature’s last regular session, castigating lawmakers for not enacting the tax cuts he sought and leaving him out of the budgeting process.

Of the $75 and $150 tax rebates lawmakers approved, Stitt said they were nothing but “political gimmicks.” He vetoed the rebates and a host of other bills, daring lawmakers to override them.

“If they do that, they own it,” he said.

Legislators didn’t take it lying down.

“Racist and hateful” is how Stitt’s veto of House Bill 3501, which would allow the state to revoke driver’s licenses of people with traffic convictions in tribal courts, was described by state Rep. Ryan Martinez, R-Edmond.

Of Stitt’s spate of vetoes, state Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, quipped, “Do you feel like the governor just spread vetoes out like mayonnaise in back, dark, smoke-filled rooms, behind closed doors, and you weren’t invited to the party?”

And then there was the statement from the Legislature’s most powerful figure, House Speaker Charles McCall. It was peppered with words like “appalled” and “disappointed,” and it described Stitt’s press conference as a “glory-mongering tantrum.”

“As we do every session, legislators will move forward in a stately, truthful manner that respects all parties without the unnecessary insults and falsehoods the governor excreted Thursday,” McCall said.

This may be the first time I’ve heard the term “excreted” used in an official statement.

Among the overridden vetoes were two that seemed targeted at the governor. Lawmakers overrode Stitt’s veto of Senate Bill 1695, which requires comprehensive financial disclosure statements from the governor’s appointees. Keep in mind, the bill’s author had previously said he’d be happy to rework the bill to meet Stitt’s concerns.

Another override put HB 3501 into law — a signal that lawmakers may want more cooperation with tribes, not less, in the post-McGirt era.

There are other rumblings over issues most Republicans won’t talk about publicly, namely some high-profile missteps under the Stitt administration.

One of those: a $2.6 million stash of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by former President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 cure, but disavowed of that purpose by medical experts and the drug’s manufacturer.

Health officials also spent $5.4 million on personal protection equipment that the state never received, and the state’s pandemic center, despite the millions sunk into that, has yet to really get off the ground.

Further revelations included more than $12 million in cost overruns now under investigation concerning the Tourism Department’s deal with Swadley’s restaurants, and hundreds of thousands of federal COVID-19 relief funds meant to go toward school supplies that bought things like video games, televisions and outdoor grills.

These oversight problems, plus inaction on federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, may have led lawmakers to ultimately wrest control of the ARPA process from the Governor’s Office.

The reverberation of these GOP conflicts has gone beyond the halls of the Capitol. Fellow Republican and current state Veterans Affairs Department Director Joel Kinstel launched a campaign to challenge Stitt in the GOP primary, citing Stitt’s squabbles with the tribes and what he has called “corruption.”

And two-term State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, a lifelong Republican and winner of two statewide campaigns, grew so weary of butting heads with the governor over school policies that she switched parties in a bid to unseat Stitt in the November general election.

That defection broke a longtime stranglehold Oklahoma Republicans have had on statewide elected offices.

But don’t be tempted to think that Stitt is a lone ranger in this intra-party fracas. The GOP caucus and some state officials might be in revolt, but the Republicans who matter most on Election Day appear to be with him.

Recent polling shows Oklahoma Republicans have a somewhat favorable or very favorable view of Stitt — a combined 78% — and he’s especially popular in rural areas.

Those voters pushed him over the top in the 2018 Republican primary, and he’ll be counting on them to do the same later this month.

In the meantime, lawmakers will be going into a special session to work on tax policy and ARPA fund projects. Most of them have elections coming up, too, meaning there will be more opportunities for disagreements to boil over in public.

Break out the popcorn. It could be an interesting summer.

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